What the crystal balls say about stocks, bonds and commodities

TL;DR

Only 10 EGX stocks have the market cap and liquidity to be really attractive to foreign investors -RenCap. (Capital Markets)
Rising oil prices mean Bahrain over Egypt, says Arqaam Capital. (Economy)
Egypt will receive the rest of its vaccines from Covax in July. (Covid Watch)
Egypt, Iraq, Jordan hold joint summit in Baghdad. (Diplomacy)
Penalties for [redacted] harassment may be about to get harsher. (Legislation Watch)
Sudan rejects Ethiopian GERD proposal. (Diplomacy)
Enterprise talks to: BalancED about investment — and the challenges of growing a schools business outside of Cairo. (Blackboard)
Planet Finance — A record-breaking year for IPOs. Plus: Have commodities peaked?

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

Good morning, everyone, and a very happy Monday to you all on this holiday-shortened week.

WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY-

The IMF is holding a virtual press conference today on the disbursal of the USD 1.6 bn third and final tranche of our USD 5.2 bn standby loan, Al Shorouk reports. IMF mission chief Celine Allard will discuss the second review of policy reform targets set under the facility, which was approved in June 2020.

Oil Minister Tarek El Molla will speak at AmCham’s virtual monthly event from 3-4pm. The minister will discuss recent developments in the industry.

Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry is in Rome today for a meeting of the global anti-Daesh coalition, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

It’s the third day of the Big 5 Construct Egypt at the Cairo International Convention Center.

WHAT’S HAPPENING ABROAD- There are two stories grabbing the attention of the international business press this morning:

US building collapse: The collapse of a 12-storey condo in Florida is still making the front pages of most US media, from the Washington Post to the WSJ;
Airstrikes in Iraq: US forces have carried out airstrikes against Iran-linked militias in Iraq and Syria. They story is everywhere from the NYT to Bloomberg.

SIGN OF THE TIMES- There’s now a black market for fake vaccination certificates in Moscow, where the Russian capital’s mayor has mandated covid-19 jabs for more than half of all service-sector employees as of today, the Washington Post reports. Workers who interact with the public, including teachers, taxi drivers, salespeople and waiters, are among those on the run to save their jobs by either getting vaccinated — or purchasing bogus vaccination certificates. Fake certificates are going for the equivalent of about USD 25.

** CATCH UP QUICK with the top stories from yesterday’s edition of EnterprisePM:

Contact to tap sukuk market in 3Q2021: Contact Financial Holding plans to issue sukuk worth EGP 2.5-3 bn in 3Q2021 to finance its subsidiaries.
Egypt’s first local green bond sale nears: The first local green bonds sale worth USD 100 mn could kick off within two to three weeks.
SMEs are slated for growth: Over 70% of small and medium-sized enterprises in Egypt are confident that their business will perform well next year.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

The Cairo International Book Fair will open its doors at the Egypt International Exhibition Center on Wednesday, 30 June. The two-week event will run through to 15 July.

The Clean Energy Business Council (CEBC) MENA are holding a webinar titled Energy Efficiency in the MENA region: Status and Outlook on 6 July at 3:30pm.

The British Egyptian Business Association (BEBA) is organizing a virtual education week from 5-6 July with three seminars planned. The first, taking place at 10am on 5 July, will discuss skills-based learning while the future of investment in education will be the topic on the table at 12:30pm the same day. On 6 July, a talk on the digitalization of education in Egypt will be held at 12pm.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

*** It’s Blackboard day: We have our weekly look at the business of education in Egypt, from pre-K through the highest reaches of higher ed. Blackboard appears every Monday in Enterprise in the place of our traditional industry news roundups.

In today’s issue: Egypt’s private sector K-12 student growth has almost doubled in the last five years, and players are expanding every day. One of those players is BalancED Education Company. We sat down with chairman Ahmed El Bakry and managing director Salma El Bakry to talk about how they’re planning to invest EGP 1.2 bn in the next three years, the status of private education in Cairo and other governorates, and how they make sure they have their own pipeline of certified teachers.

CAPITAL MARKETS

Only 10 EGX companies are attractive to foreign investors, says RenCap

Only 10 EGX-listed companies have the market cap and liquidity to be really attractive to foreign investors, Amr Helal, Renaissance Capital’s North Africa CEO, said at a conference yesterday, according to Al Shorouk.

Among the top of the list: Speaking at the Portfolio Egypt 2021 conference, Helal named leading private-sector bank CIB, state-run tobacco monopoly Eastern Company, e-payment firm Fawry and Cleopatra Hospitals Group as the most attractive EGX-listed stocks for foreign investors. Healthcare, education and fintech are all particularly hot internationally, he added.

The EGX has had a rough 2021 so far: The benchmark EGX30 is down 5% in 2021 YTD, with foreign and institutional investors typically accounting for less than 25% of trading volumes. The bourse’s regional competitors, meanwhile, are flying: The ADX is up almost 33% YTD, the Saudi Tadawul is up 26.2%, while the DFM has gained 15.2% since the start of the year.

The biggest problem? A lack of large, listed companies on the bourse, Helal said.

Are IPOs the solution? That’s the conventional wisdom — that it’s going to take large offerings of fresh paper to lure foreign investors back. Helal cautions, though, that new offerings on the EGX often fail to attract significant foreign interest when they’re overpriced.

As many as four companies could IPO on the EGX in the second half of this year, EGX boss Mohamed Farid said earlier this month. State-owned e-payments company E-Finance is planning to go public in 2H2021 while Ebtikar’s share sale is expected to take place in 4Q2021. Meanwhile, cosmeceutical giant Macro Group is looking to pull the trigger on its IPO in the fall after postponing it in April.

RenCap has four EGX IPOs in its pipeline, some of which could go to market by the end of this year, while others would make their market debuts in 2022, Helal said. We know already that the EM-focused investment bank is managing E-Finance’s share sale alongside CI Capital and Pharos, and will quarterback the Macro transaction alongside EFG Hermes.

ECONOMY

Bahrain over Egypt, says Arqaam Capital

Rising oil prices have Arqaam favoring Bahrain’s bonds over Egypt’s: The Egyptian bond market may be underpricing the country’s vulnerability to rising oil prices, Abdul Kadir Hussain, managing director of fixed income asset management at Arqaam Capital, suggested in an interview with Bloomberg Daybreak yesterday (watch, runtime 6:11). Although many of the region’s sovereign yield spreads have priced-in higher oil prices, Hussain suggested that Egyptian spreads may not be reflecting the level of risk that the country — a net importer of oil — faces as prices climb. “Even though Egypt trades wider than Bahrain, we think that the spread differential is not wide enough, given the headwinds Egypt might face from higher oil prices, even in the face of improving tourism,” he said.

Global oil prices have surged in recent weeks amid surging post-lockdown demand and a supply shortfall. The price of Brent crude rose to USD 76.18 / bbl at the end of last week, its highest level since October 2018, and more than USD 11 above the benchmark price used for Egypt’s 2020/2021 state budget. A number of market players have called a return to USD 100 oil in recent weeks as prices have continued to climb. And this week’s OPEC+ meeting isn’t expected to deliver the extra supply needed to put a ceiling over prices, meaning further rises in the days and weeks ahead.

COVID WATCH

Egypt will receive the rest of its vaccines from Covax in July

The Gavi / Covax program will ship 1.9 mn doses of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine to Egypt in July, Health Minister Hala Zayed said in a statement yesterday. The shipment was originally set to arrive in Egypt by the first week of June, but it has been delayed as Covax suffers a supply shortage.

It will — so far — be our last Gavi / Covax shipment: The initiative has allocated 4.5 mn shots to Egypt and has so far delivered 2.6 mn. Egypt and six other countries have used 80% of the shots sent by Covax.

We are also expecting to receive in the next two weeks more raw material to produce Sinovac’s vaccine: China will ship material sufficient to produce 7.5 mn doses of the jab, Zayed said. China has so far sent us enough to churn out as many as 10 mn shots of the vaccine. Vacsera’s production facility aims to produce 6 mn doses of Sinovac by the end of the year — and is expected to produce the initial batches any day now, ahead of shipping them off to quality control and (if things go well) to clinics around the country.

The Health Ministry reported 389 new covid-19 infections yesterday, down from 409 the day before. Egypt has now disclosed a total of 280,394 confirmed cases of covid-19. The ministry also reported 30 new deaths, bringing the country’s total death toll to 16,092.

Folks getting Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna jabs will be warned that the mRNA vaccines carry rare heart risks. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it will add a warning about rare cases of heart inflammation following the second shot to its fact sheets for both mRNA vaccines. This came after an advisory group to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggested last week a “likely association” between the jabs and rare cases of myocarditis / pericarditis — inflammation of the heart muscle or surrounding membrane.

Health officials said the benefits of receiving the vaccines still outweigh risks, affirming in a statement that the disease is “much more common if you get covid-19, and the risks to the heart from covid-19 infection can be more severe.” Around 1.2k cases following mRNA vaccines have been reported as of 11 June, out of more than 300 mn doses administered in the US, the CDC said.

DIPLOMACY

Egypt, Iraq, Jordan hold summit in Baghdad

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi became the first Egyptian head of state to visit Iraq in more than 30 years yesterday as he travelled to Baghdad for three-way talks with Iraqi President Barham Salih, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi and Jordan's King Abdullah II. The talks saw the three countries agree to deepen security and economic cooperation —and featured discussions about terrorism, the dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the situation in Palestine, and the reconstruction of Iraq, according to two Ittihadiya statements (here and here) following the meeting. Foreign ministers from the three countries also met in Baghdad yesterday, and said during a post-meeting presser that Iraq and Jordan both backed Egypt’s position on GERD (watch, runtime: 14:19).

The three countries have been deepening ties in recent years: El Sisi’s last trilateral summit with Iraq and Jordan’s leaders was in Amman last summer, when the three sides agreed to strengthen economic, energy, investment and infrastructure ties. Two years ago the three countries agreed to set up joint industrial zones and look at lowering trade barriers. There are reportedly plans to export Egyptian electricity to Jordan and Iraq and there is also talk of reviving plans to construct an oil pipeline running between Egypt and Iraq through Jordan. Egypt and Jordan had signed seven agreements on telecoms, energy, trade, housing, and archaeology projects during Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly’s visit to Amman in March — the same month Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met with his Iraqi and Jordanian counterparts to discuss regional developments.

And Egypt has been keen to get involved in the reconstruction of Iraq: Egypt and Iraq have stepped up bilateral ties in recent months. Last year, the two countries signed 15 MoUs covering everything from oil and water resources to construction, transportation and environmental protection, as well as an “oil-for-reconstruction” agreement, which is seeing Iraq supply the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation with 12 mn barrels of oil this year. This was followed last week by an agreement between the two countries’ ICT ministries to increase investments in digital and telecom infrastructure.

The story is dominating the coverage on Egypt in the foreign press: Reuters | Associated Press | AFP | The National.

LEGISLATION WATCH

Penalties for [redacted] harassment may be about to get harsher

A draft bill to toughen penalties for [redacted] harassment has been greenlit by the House Legislative Committee, Youm7 reports. The bill would see offenders sentenced to between two and four years in prison and handed EGP 100-200k fines. Repeat offenders could see the punishment more than doubled to a maximum seven years in prison and a EGP 500k fine. Currently, the maximum penalty for offenders is a one-year jail sentence and a fine of up to EGP 10k. The bill will now be sent to the House of Representatives for a final vote.

The bill to give new authority over international arbitration to the Supreme Constitutional Court moved closer to becoming law after MPs gave preliminary approval yesterday, according to Masrawy. Under the changes, the court would be given the power to override international court and arbitration rulings that it believes affect the country’s national and economic security. They also give the prime minister the power to request the SCC consider whether a given verdict by an international court or arbitration body breach the Egyptian constitution or harm the country’s interests. The bill will now be put up for a final vote in the general assembly.

The USD 400 mn World Bank loan earmarked for the government’s national health ins. system was preliminarily approved by MPs yesterday, Gomhuria reports. The loan, which will be disbursed by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, will help subsidize health ins. costs for people unable to afford it, and fund infrastructure for the rollout of the universal system.

DIPLOMACY

Sudan rejects Ethiopian GERD proposal

Ethiopia trying to get Sudan’s backing for filling the GERD? Sudan has rejected a proposal put forward by Ethiopia that would allow it to continue filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam next month, Reuters reports, citing a senior Sudanese official. The report doesn’t elaborate on what the Ethiopians were proposing, but the official dismissed it as “not real” and a “way to buy time.” Ethiopia plans to continue filling the dam’s reservoir next month when the rainy season begins, with or without an agreement with Egypt and Sudan.

Is a stop-gap solution still possible? The Sudanese irrigation minister has said the government is open to an interim agreement with Ethiopia, provided it meets several conditions. But according to the official, Ethiopia has put forward “impossible conditions” related to the division of the Nile River’s water, which Sudan considers non-negotiable.

Both Egypt and Sudan have appealed to the UN Security Council to act, and are likely to submit a draft resolution to the council in the coming days in an effort to pressure world powers to weigh in. Ethiopia, meanwhile, rejected the involvement of the UN and insisted on continuing with negotiations led by the African Union.

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EGYPT IN THE NEWS

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PLANET FINANCE

Another record-breaking year for IPOs: Almost USD 350 bn has been raised in IPOs in 1H2021, exceeding the previous record set in 2H2020 when investors poured USD 282 bn into new listings, Bloomberg reports. Renewable energy companies, e-commerce companies joined tech firms to capitalize on the huge stimulus-fuelled demand for new listings, which has now eclipsed the dot-com mania of the late 1990s.

But some fear the market is becoming oversaturated, and some high-profile stocks such as Deliveroo have on their trading debuts as investors are spoilt for choice. Investor appetite for SPACs also seems to be fading, with their share of the proceeds of the IPO market shrinking to 13% this quarter, down from almost 50% in the first quarter.

Have commodities peaked? Commodity prices have finally begun to ease from their pandemic levels, calming fears of runaway inflation and calling the supercycle thesis into question. Copper is down 10% from its record high in March, corn and soybean futures are down 13% and 19% respectively, while lumber has plunged 54%. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has said the fall in lumber prices proves his theory correct: that rising inflation is linked to supply bottlenecks and that it will soon fall as post-lockdown economies normalize. “A few months ago the consensus was that prices for commodities can’t go anywhere but up,” one analyst told the Wall Street Journal. “More recently, though, we’ve had a few reminders that prices don’t go up in a straight line.”

Or is this the start of something bigger? Despite the decreases, lumber is still at twice its typical price at this time of year, while oil, natural gas and copper prices also remain relatively high. China’s economic resurgence, a large infrastructure bill in the US, and American households flush with stimulus money are reasons to believe commodities have a way to go before they top out. “I think we’re in the early innings of this,” said one trader active in commodity-linked ETFs. “I don’t believe it’s as transitory as the Fed is saying.”

From the region:

International Holding Company has become the UAE’s most valuable company, overtaking Emirates Telecommunications Group after its subsidiary Alpha Dhabi Holding went public in Abu Dhabi yesterday. IHC, which is chaired by the UAE’s national security adviser, saw its share price climb 15%, the maximum jump in a single session allowed by regulators. IHC has an investment portfolio ranging from shares in Elon Musk’s SpaceX to a local company working in seafood processing. (Bloomberg)
Kuwaiti e-commerce company Floward is planning an IPO within the next two years, with London, New York, and Saudi Arabia as possible venues. An early investor in the ride-hailing company Careem is backing Floward, which expects to post a profit starting next year. Floward will use proceeds to expand further in the region, and is eyeing entry into two more unspecified Arab countries and a possible entry to the European market. (Bloomberg)

In tech miscellany:

An increased crackdown on the Chinese tech sector has seen the value of tech companies’ listings crash by 60% in 2Q2021, with their share of the Chinese IPO market dropping to its lowest levels in two years. Chinese regulators have stepped in to stop many IPOs to put a halt to potential monopolistic practices, the most prominent example being the halt of Ant Group’s USD 37 bn IPO days before it was set to go to market last year. (FT)
One of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges just got banned from the UK: The UK’s financial regulator has banned all operations by crypto exchange Binance and warned consumers against using the platform. The move comes one week after Japan’s financial watchdog warned that Binance was conducting unauthorized cryptocurrency trades. (FCA)

EGX30	10,305	+0.25% (YTD: -5.0%)
USD (CBE)	Buy 15.62	Sell 15.72
USD at CIB	Buy 15.62	Sell 15.72
Interest rates CBE	8.25% deposit	9.25% lending
Tadawul	10,966	+0.4% (YTD: +26.2%)
ADX	6,706	+2.0% (YTD: +32.9%)
DFM	2,870	+0.5% (YTD: +15.2%)
S&P 500	4,280	+0.3% (YTD: +14.0%)
FTSE 100	7,136	+0.4% (YTD: +10.5%)
Brent crude	USD 76.18	+0.8%
Natural gas (Nymex)	USD 3.50	+2.3%
Gold	USD 1,777.80	+0.1%
BTC	USD 34,210	+7.9% (as of midnight)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The EGX30 rose 0.3% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 1.25 bn (1.3% below the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net sellers. The index is down 5.0% YTD.

In the green: Palm Hills Development (+2.8%), Ibnsina Pharma (+2.2%) and TMG Holding (+2.0%).

In the red: Qalaa Holdings (-2.6%), AMOC (-2.4%) and Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals (-1.3%).

Asian markets are mixed in early trading this morning and futures suggest that shares in Europe will fall when the market opens this morning. US stocks are poised to see early gains later today.

INVESTMENT WATCH- BalancED wants to invest EGP 1.2 bn in K-12 over the next three years: The nation’s education industry is booming — the head count at private K-12 schools grew about 2x faster than the rate at which students enrolled in public schools over the past five years, prompting a wave of investment by both international education franchises and others as national private schools.

Among those looking to take a piece of the pie is BalancED Education Company, which recently announced an investment of EGP 500 mn in a K-12 international school in Madinet Nasr Housing and Development’s (MNHD) Taj City in East Cairo. The move is part of a wider plan to invest EGP 1.2 bn over the coming three years. Today, BalancED owns the New Generation International School in Obour and Asten College in Taj City, which is scheduled to open in September 2023, with other schools in the pipeline. The company wants 4-6 schools in its portfolio by the end of the next three years.

We sat down with BalancED chairman Ahmed El Bakry and managing director Salma El Bakry to discuss their growth plans and the challenges of expanding outside of Cairo.

Edited excerpts from our conversation:

Transforming into a multi-school operation by investing EGP 1.2 bn: BalancED is looking to expand beyond its one school and add several schools under its wing — be it through new greenfield schools, acquisitions or managing new or existing schools. “We are planning to invest EGP 1.2 bn over the next three years, to achieve this,” Ahmed tells us.

The company expects within weeks to finalize an acquisition and will manage the school it’s adding to its portfolio, Ahmed says. BalancED wants to grow through a mix of greenfields, acquisitions and management contracts, “with the goal of having 4-6 international schools across the country under our wing in the coming two to three years,” he says.

“Currently, we prefer to manage schools rather than build them,” he says, adding that years with lower barriers to entry now sees a number of players looking to exit the private education market because it’s hard to lock in the management talent you need to grow. “This is the gap we are filling,” he says, “and we are currently finalizing the paperwork to manage two schools — one in Cairo and one outside.”

The biggest challenge of growth outside of major population centers? The availability of talent. “We were already approached by a school in Upper Egypt and another one in Lower Egypt, but finding good teachers outside of Cairo and Alexandria is a bit more challenging,” Ahmed says. “You need local talent with perfect English proficiency, knowledge of the subject matter and ability to deliver,” Salma adds.

Either way, the gap is huge: 80% of the country’s population is outside of Cairo, but only 15% of international schools are located in other governorates. Egypt had 168 international schools in 2011 — and more than 785 as of last year, according to the Education Ministry’s data. In 2021, there are at least 20 more that opened, Salma tells us. Demand will continue to grow in the long term, with the population boom adding about 2 mn new future students each year.

The keys to success outside of Cairo? A full-court press and quality. Ahmed says the company prefers to move into a new area with more than one school, while Salma stresses that advertising doesn’t attract new students — word of mouth does. That makes quality the key success factor, she says.

BalancED is building its own pipeline of teachers through affiliations with local and international organizations, including Florida Atlantic University (FAU) to create teaching methodologies and research, Indiana’s Purdue University for English proficiency, and Franklin Covey’s Leader in Me program which prepares teachers with the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People to instill into their students. These affiliations prepare and train up-and-coming teachers to teach in private schools for a span of two years. So far, 36 teachers have graduated from these training programs, Salma tells us.

Your top education stories for the week:

AUC has a new president: Arabic and Islamic studies scholar Ahmed Dallal has been appointed president of the American University in Cairo.
As does BUE: The British University in Egypt (BUE) has appointed new president and vice-chancellor Professor Mohamed Loutfi, with his term beginning in September.
European companies to build STEM schools in Egypt: In cooperation with European companies, Egypt is planning to establish technical schools specialized in STEM education and advanced technologies.
Universities consider ebooks: The Supreme Council of Universities is looking into converting textbooks into ebooks as of the next academic year, according to Al Masry Al Youm.
Partnership between higher education and health ministries: A mechanism to coordinate between universities’ medical facilities and state hospitals is being sought to provide better health services for citizens.

CALENDAR

26-29 June (Saturday-Tuesday): The Big 5 Construct Egypt, Cairo International Convention Center, Cairo, Egypt. The Big 5 Egypt Impact Awards will also be taking place at the event on 27 June.

28 June (Monday): AmCham is featuring Oil Minister Tarek El Molla in their virtual monthly event from 3-4pm.

29 June (Tuesday): The London School of Economics (LSE) discussion “Policy Reform in the Making: Stakeholder Engagement through Economic Diplomacy” from 3pm-4:15pm. You can register through this link.

30 June (Wednesday): The IMF will complete a second review of targets set under the USD 5.2 bn standby loan approved in June 2020 (proposed date).

30 June (Wednesday): 30 June Revolution Day.

30 June- 15 July: The Cairo International Book Fair, Egypt International Exhibition Center.

July + August: Thanaweya Amma exams take place.

1 July: (Thursday): National holiday in observance of 30 June Revolution.

1 July (Thursday): Large taxpayers that have not yet signed on to the e-invoicing platform will suffer a host of penalties, including removal from large taxpayer classification, losing access to government services and business, and losing subsidies.

1 July (Thursday): Deadline for 17 EGX-listed companies to file their 1Q2021 earnings.

1-10 July (Thursday-Saturday): The government’s fuel pricing committee will meet to announce 3Q prices.

4 July (Sunday): Ismailia Economic Court to hold hearing on Ever Given compensation case.

Mid-July: Legislative session expected to end.

19 July (Monday): Arafat Day (national holiday).

21 July (Wednesday): Clean Energy Business Council’s webinar Women entrepreneurs in clean energy (3pm)

20-23 July (Tuesday-Friday): Eid Al Adha (national holiday).

23 July (Friday): Revolution Day (national holiday).

23 July-11 August (Friday-Wednesday): Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

2-4 August (Monday-Wednesday): Egypt is hosting the Africa Food Manufacturing exhibition at the Egypt International Exhibition Center.

5 August (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

9 August (Monday): Islamic New Year.

12 August (Thursday): National holiday in observance of the Islamic New Year.

12-15 September (Sunday-Wednesday): Sahara Expo: the 33rd International Agricultural Exhibition for Africa and the Middle East.

15 September (Wednesday): The CFO Leadership & Strategy Summit is taking place in Egypt.

16 September (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

30 September-2 October (Thursday-Saturday): Egypt Projects 2021 expo, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

30 September-8 October (Thursday-Friday): The Cairo International Fair, Cairo International Conference Center, Cairo, Egypt.

1 October (Friday): Businesses importing goods at seaports will need to file shipping documents and cargo data digitally to the Advance Cargo Information (ACI) system.

1 October (Friday): Expo 2020 Dubai opens.

6 October (Wednesday): Armed Forces Day.

7 October (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Armed Forces Day.

12-14 October (Tuesday-Thursday): Mediterranean Offshore Conference, Alexandria, Egypt.

18 October (Monday): Prophet’s Birthday.

21 October (Thursday): National holiday in observance of the Prophet’s Birthday.

24-28 October (Sunday-Thursday) Cairo Water Week, Cairo, Egypt.

27-28 October (Wednesday-Thursday) Intelligent Cities Exhibition & Conference, Royal Maxim Palace Kempinski, Cairo, Egypt.

28 October (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

30 October – 4 November (Saturday-Thursday): The first edition of Race The Legends, Egypt.

1-3 November (Monday-Wednesday): Egypt Energy exhibition on power and renewable energy, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

November: Egypt will host another round of talks to reach a potential Egyptian-Eurasian trade agreement, which can significantly contribute to increasing the volume of Egyptian exports to the Russia-led bloc that includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

1-12 November (Monday-Friday): 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), Glasgow, United Kingdom.

29 November-2 December (Monday-Thursday): Egypt Defense Expo.

12-14 December (Sunday-Tuesday): Food Africa Cairo trade exhibition, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

13-17 December: United Nations Convention against Corruption, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

16 December (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

14-16 February 2022 (Monday-Wednesday): Egypt Petroleum Show, Egypt International Exhibition Center, New Cairo, Egypt.

1H2022: The World Economic Forum annual meeting, location TBD.

May 2022: Investment in Logistics Conference, Cairo, Egypt.

27 June-3 July 2022 (Monday-Sunday): World University Squash Championships, New Giza.

**Note to readers: Some national holidays may appear twice above. Since 2020, Egypt has observed most mid-week holidays on Thursdays regardless of the day on which they fall and may also move those days to Sundays. We distinguish below between the actual holiday and its observance.